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≡ English Project: Michelle Yang, Vivian Park, Joan Park, Jenny Bae ≡

 
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English Project: Michelle Yang, Vivian Park, Joan Park, Jenny Bae
 
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The Eyes of Eckleberg

19198041

There is not much to tell about the rest. A week or two later, I left the Egg to move the Midwest. Gatsby came to say bye as I boarded the train. It was a rainy day. Droplets of drizzles had wet my hair ever since the morning. And as a day went by, it began to come down harder and harder. By the time I was in my seat, ready for the train to take off, the fury of the rain had completely taken over the Valley of the Ashes.

Gatsby was there, standing by himself, staring blankly towards the rear end of the train. There was "something gorgeous about him." I waved to him good-bye through the foggy glass window of the train. I don't think he saw. I couldn’t tell if he was crying or not. Was it just the rain? Or did that trail of water breaking off of his chin start from his eyes? Even before I could gather my thoughts, the train started moving. I peeped out the window to take one last glance at the town. To my surprise-Dr. T.J. Eckleberg was looking at me, and at Gatsby. His two blue eyes completely open and as clear as ever. The dust had been washed away by the heavy rain, taking with it the veil that was clouding its eyes from seeing what the world has to offer.

            My eyes turned to the rear window of the train, where I last saw Gatsby through. But he was no longer there. And that was the last time we saw each other that year.



 
Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's eyes symbolize today's government and society.  Although the government does not pry into all of the business's matters, they do keep their eyes open and make sure that businesses keep some laws such as child labor laws.  Around 1916, child labor laws were put into action, and therefore, things were turning for the better.  They also make sure that meat businesses have a certain grade and quality of meat before selling it.
The president is also the first African-American to be the United States' president.  Tom Buchanan, in the Great Gatsby, says "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.. We've got to beat them down" (he is referring to Caucasian people who have to watch out for other races).  He shows great racism in that part of the book, and this type of racism was still okay in the 1920's.  People accepted it.  Now people are more open and accept everyone.  People have learned to accept diversity in today's society.  The open eyes represent the openness of today's society compared to 1920's society.
Also, people are more open about homosexuality, also connecting to T.J. Eckleburg's un-foggy eyes.  In The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald had to subtly hint at the homosexuality of Nick with the incident of Mr. McKee in his underwear.  But now, since today's society accepts homosexuality much more than the 1920's society, we are able to make their homosexual relationship much more open than Gatsby had hinted at.  The huge amount of rainfall has cleared his eyes, and the rain symbolizes the great changes that America has gone through to overcome racism, prejudices against homosexuality, and many other things since the 1920's.